TV Shows That Deserve Better Video Games

It’s easy to write off a video game based on a TV show as a company’s way to cash in on the property. While not all of the games in the list below do that, most of them do. That’s a shame.

Multiple video games exist for the five shows below – but we think they can do better. A lot better.

Battlestar Galactica (2004 series)

What we have: Not much. A simplistic shooter was released on Xbox Live Arcade and then later pulled from the platform. A free-to-play browser-based MMO also exists in addition to a mobile game, and all focus on space combat.

What we need: Mass Effect wouldn’t be a bad series to emulate. Running around a beautifully recreated Battlestar Galactica as Lieutenant Starbuck would be fun. Just hearing her yell “frak” at people might be enough, but the game could also allow players to have meaningful interactions with the show’s complex world. Dogfights can take a cue from Star Fox and have little heads pop up when pilots relay messages, except it won’t be of Slippy Toad screaming for mercy as he proves his worthlessness as a pilot.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

What we have: An assortment of terrible action games best left smoldering in the flames of one of the show’s fire benders. The games are so bad that people only remember the Xbox 360 version because it hands out 1,000 Gamerscore in less than five minutes for spamming the attack button.

What we need: An open-world action-RPG centered on exploration with cel-shaded graphics akin to Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3. The world crafted in the show is easily one of the most interesting on television. There’d need to be a modest use of bending – no wave after wave of cheap enemies unless utilized in the show’s bigger set pieces. And sky bison Appa. For the uninitiated, Appa is a flying bison from the TV show. He helps the main characters travel the world and fight the evil fire nation. So basically he is too awesome to not be included.

American Gladiators

What we have: Perhaps the best Amiga, Sega Genesis, Super NES and Nintendo Entertainment System games ever created. That last sentence is an outright lie; the NES version barely resembled the TV show, but the other versions did – just not very well.

What we need: This show screams Kinect game. As a downloadable title a new American Gladiators game could bring all the thrills of being a truly elite athlete right to your living room. Many of the show’s events like Joust or Hang Tough would make for a fun diversion on the Kinect. Sweaty, muscular gladiators are optional.